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We now have our very first cohort of Academy Award nominees for Best Casting. We also have a brief lull until the final voting begins on February 26. Regardless of whether or not the category’s inaugural award goes to “Sinners,” “The Secret Agent,” “Hamnet,” “One Battle After Another,” or “Marty Supreme,” though, the IndieWire Craft team thought that an amusing way to use some of that time would be to backfill for the Academy, so to speak.
Casting as an artistic discipline has been around in its current form for decades, despite the proliferation of Zoom and self-tapes. Meticulous research, intuition, collaboration, and creative ability to expand on the filmmakers’ vision all go into the casting process. We see no reason IndieWire can’t retroactively reward that effort — albeit with no statues or acceptance speeches, unfortunately — to build a sense of what could have been a list of the Best Casting Award Winners for the first quarter of the 21st Century.
Everybody else gets a multiverse. Welcome to the one where the first Best Casting award was handed out in 2000.
The results of this universe have ended up being pretty fun, too. We have some repeat winners, but not too many, and no single casting director would have taken home an Oscar more than twice. Current nominees Francine Maisler (for “Sinners”) and Nina Gold (for “Hamnet”) would be going for a third award to break the tie they both theoretically hold with Ellen Chenoweth, Sarah Finn, and Gail Stevens. We ended up highlighting both large ensembles and more intimate stories, where finding the right person for the role was crucial. Some of the Best Picture winners won, but there were very few sweeps.
The Rules:
- We’re only looking at films from the 21st century. Hollywood has operated under many forms and guises since the first Academy Awards in the 1920s, and casting did not work the same way in 1926 that it does now — although “Stagecoach” would win for 1939, thank you for your question.
- We will limit potential candidates to the Best Picture nominees from each year for the retroactive awards. We are mostly doing this because this writer cannot be thinking about both “Mamma Mia!” and “Gran Torino” in the Year of our Lord 2026. Your protest that “The Florida Project” did not qualify for consideration is noted.
- These are retroactive awards, which means we can be retroactive in our reasoning, too. Casting directors who assembled ensembles full of actors who have gone on to do interesting work and made interesting choices are going to be rewarded for being right!
- This is for fun.
With that out of the way, please enjoy IndieWire’s Not-So-Academy Award for Best Casting of the last 25 years. Films are listed in chronological order.
‘Gladiator’©DreamWorks/Courtesy Everett Collection2000 — “Gladiator”
Casting Director: Louis DiGiaimo
The Reason: The Ridley Scott film that has more conflicted feelings about empire than about fighting tigers is kind of the performance of Russell Crowe’s career, at least a certain era of it, and the entire cast is elite. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is also eligible for the year and basically did the same thing for America’s interest in wuxia films, but we have to give the edge to Louis DiGiaimo for putting Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, and Crowe in scenes together, and putting baby psychopathic Joaquin Phoenix on the road to doing that many more times after Commodus.
2001 — “Gosford Park”
Casting Director: Mary Selway
The Reason: Let it not go unsaid that “Mulholland Drive” should be eligible for this, but “Gosford Park” — and the sheer feat of assembling the cast of “Gosford Park” is a central part of the appeal of this Robert Altman/Julian Fellowes joint — the reason we had like a whole genre of period television (your “Downton Abbey,” your “Call the Midwife”) in the 2010s.
2002 — “The Hours”
Casting Directors: Patsy Pollock, Daniel Swee
The Reason: Streep. Kidman. Moore. All in one film. Look, we know the real answer is probably “The Pianist” for launching Adrien Brody into the stratosphere and crafting a very complex, sprawling European ensemble, but we’re not giving retroactive Oscars to Polanski projects, and as fun as “Chicago” is, it turns out we do have to hand it to the women who read Mrs. Dalloway.
2003 — “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Casting Director: Victoria Burrows
The Reason: Arguably, Victoria Burrows should get an Oscar for “The Fellowship of the Ring” but we’re just assuming that casting would’ve been part of the third film’s giant sweep. What’s not arguable is that Burrows should get an Oscar for finding Viggo Mortensen to take over Aragorn with a quickness.
2004 — “Sideways”
Casting Director: John Jackson
The Reason: We’re also kind of simulating the awards voting logic of the year a bit this one, because of all the talk at the time about Thomas Haden Church. But Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne certainly don’t get to make “The Holdovers,” and a lot of other indie projects of the late aughts don’t get greenlit, without “Sideways” coming first.
‘Good Night, and Good Luck’©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection2005 — “Good Night, and Good Luck”
Casting Director: Ellen Chenoweth
The Reason: This is specifically me, Sarah Shachat, being arbitrary because I love the Diana Ross soundtrack to “Good Night, and Good Luck” a lot, and the decision to cast her recording in a studio on a different floor at CBS is ingenious. So is David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, to be fair, and while much of the film rests on him, even the smallest touches around the edge of the ensemble really help that film build its sense of place and time.
2006 — “Little Miss Sunshine”
Casting Director: Justine Arteta, Kim Davis-Wagner
The Reason: It’s the best cast dysfunctional family of the decade, and it’s not even close. Bonus points for Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin, two jaw-droppingly good discoveries, who acquit themselves in tricky roles here and elsewhere.
2007 — “No Country for Old Men”
Casting Director: Ellen Chenoweth
The Reason: We agonized a little bit about the relative merits of the Coen’s neo-western, “Atonement,” and “Juno,” which offer fun launch points for Saoirse Ronan, Elliot Page, and Michael Cera. But both Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin are forces of nature in “No Country for Old Men,” and the team that set them up to collide with each other deserves an award.
2008 — “Slumdog Millionaire”
Casting Directors: Gail Stevens, Loveleen Tandan
The Reason: Thank you, Gail Stevens and Loveleen Tanden, for finding Dev Patel and enriching the lives of millennial bisexuals for years to come. The whole cast is really strong here, and especially with such branching stories in the Danny Boyle film, you need them to be. But also, “Slumdog” wins on the strength of Patel alone.
2009 — “Inglourious Basterds”
Casting Director: Jenny Jue
The Reason: This is a fucking cast. The film inaugurates a phase of Brad Pitt getting to play weirdos again, his strongest suit, and the launching of Christoph Waltz is arguably as key to the film’s success as any other aspect of “Inglourious Basterds.” A murderer’s row of side characters, too, from Eli Roth and Michael Fassbender to Mélanie Laurent and Léa Seydoux.
‘The Social Network’Sony2010 — “The Social Network”
Casting Director: Laray Mayfield
The Reason: This is another choice where we’re giving Laray Mayfield the edge because Jesse Eisenberg’s career solidifies into a clear shape post-“The Social Network.” But it gets bonus points for a number of bold, unexpected but right ensemble choices, including Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield.
2011 — “Moneyball”
Casting Director: Francine Maisler
The Reason: See our reasoning for “The Social Network,” except now we’re talking about Jonah Hill. It does kind of feel like he crunched numbers on “Moneyball” so that Bill Hader could go on murder sprees on “Barry.” Sometimes a casting choice opens up whole new ideas of what’s possible in film and television.
2012 — “Zero Dark Thirty”
Casting Directors: Mark Bennett, Richard Hicks, Gail Stevens
The Reason: This is a tough year, because there’s really good, hard work behind the team that put together the non-professional actors in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” and also a lot of fun people were in “Django Unchained,” we suppose. We are giving the edge to “Zero Dark Thirty” because Bennett, Hicks, and Stevens find the perfect blend of faces here, so that nobody looks too charismatic for the horrific bureaucratic morass of the War on Terror. Also, it’s specifically for casting James Gandolfini as definitely-not Leon Panetta. Inspired.
2013 — “12 Years A Slave”
Casting Director: Francine Maisler
The Reason: Maisler put together just a really stellar ensemble, frankly. The real “find” among the cast is probably Lupita Nyong’o, on balance, but from the main leads to the background actors, Maisler and her team cast the kind of people who would help immerse us in the world of “12 Years A Slave.” It’s one from which there can be no escape.
2014 — “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Casting Director: Douglas Aibel
The Reason: It might be the biggest ensemble of the decade, but we think it might be the best ensemble of the decade, too. Also, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is kind of a murderer’s row of casting directors. Douglas Aibel handled the U.S. casting, but also the late, great Simone Bär did German casting, Jina Jay handled UK casting, and Antoinette Boulat managed the casting for France. This is the most European Hollywood film since Ernst Lubitsch was making movies, and with just as sparkling an ensemble.
‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection2015 — “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Casting Directors: Nikki Barrett, Ronna Kress
The Reason: Quite simply, “Fury Road” should have won every Oscar it was nominated for. Do you remember anything about “Brooklyn”? Of course you don’t. “Fury Road” has stood the test of time. Barrett and Kress also get extra glory for kind of launching a new phase of Charlize Theron’s career, and for letting us witness Nicholas Hoult be one of his weirdest weirdos.
2016 — “Moonlight”
Casting Director: Yesi Ramirez
The Reason: Casting is particularly challenging for films that don’t span multiple time periods and emotional valences. Casting children is really hard. Casting actors, including children, to play the same role across time periods is really, really hard. Doing those things flawlessly and also elevating Mahershala Ali is Oscar-worthy.
2017 — “Get Out”
Casting Director: Terri Taylor
The Reason: Obviously, Daniel Kaluuya took this role and ran with it. But Terri Taylor did absolutely top-tier casting of the credibly creepy white suburb that hides The Sunken Place. Bradley Whitford saying that he’d vote for Obama a third time will never not be funny.
2018 — “Black Panther”
Casting Director: Sarah Finn
The Reason: A Marvel film?! On an IndieWire list?! When it’s Ryan Coogler, it’s more likely than you think. The “Black Panther” cast is an incredibly joyous group of performers, clearly relishing in getting to take lots and lots of Disney money and use it to make an Afrofuturist utopia. Just having Chadwick Boseman, Angela Bassett, Daniel Kaluuya, and Michael B. Jordan in a scene together is a delight.
2019 — “1917”
Casting Director: Nina Gold
The Reason: There’s a very specific reason for this pick: there are too many sprawling war movies nowadays, and it is difficult to tell the dirty boys in even dirtier uniforms apart (looking at you, “Dunkirk”). “1917” does a great job — structurally, of course — specifically in its casting, in making each zone of WWI-era Flanders feel distinct. And we can’t help but be glad George MacKay got this role so that he was able to go on and do very weird, arty things like “The Beast.”
‘Minari’Josh Ethan Johnson2020 — “Minari”
Casting Director: Julia Kim
The Reason: Julia Kim really did a great job casting this family, which is a very tricky thing to do. But “Minari” is also another great example of how casting the minor players around the new Korean family moving to Arkansas gives us a vivid sense of that time and place.
2021 — “West Side Story”
Casting Director: Cindy Tolan
The Reason: The eternal bumper crop of Broadway performers notwithstanding, movie musicals are huge casting challenges with major stakes, even with the enticement of being directed by Steven Spielberg. Cindy Tolan met those stakes and raised them Ariana DeBose, Mike Faist, and Rachel Zegler. Enough of retroactively thinking “The War of the Worlds” was better than it was, guys. “West Side Story” rules, and we all need to put more respect on its name and on the name of this cast. So we are giving Tolan a fake Oscar. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
2022 — “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Casting Director: Sarah Finn
The Reason: The Daniels themselves wrote the script for the film with Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan in mind, but the entire cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” whips. Finding folks who would be down to play with this kind of exuberant weirdness is as much about reading vibes as sides, and Finn built out infinite worlds of laundry and taxes just by pulling Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong (!), Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., and more great actors into the Everything Bagel.
2023 — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Casting Director: Ellen Lewis
The Reason: The difficulty level of this setting is pretty high, the scope of the story is vast, and the art of finding folks whose screen presence can effortlessly hang with bigger names like DiCaprio and De Niro is tricky. Ellen Lewis knocked it out of the park. Every character’s face feels distinctive in “Killer of the Flower Moon.” Every life feels vital and important the moment we look at someone, which is part of the tragedy in the film. And Lily Gladstone? C’mon.
2024 — “Conclave”
Casting Director: Nina Gold, Martin Ware
The Reason: We personally enjoyed the memes so much that we think “Conclave” deserves more awards. Seriously, though, “Conclave” is the kind of big, dumb drama (affectionate) where getting the casting right makes all the difference. Nina Gold and Martin Ware build out a Vatican of schemes with the kind of distinctive faces and depth that Leonardo Da Vinci would put in a painting. The casting does fantastic worldbuilding, ably finds an actor who can take on a very tricky role, and reminds us all of how good Ralph Fiennes looks in a red hat.
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